Cilantro Garlic Lime Chicken with Zucchini Noodles

In the past year, I’ve become quite the fan of pasta made out of vegetable pasta. Several months ago, I read an article in Family Circle magazine that shared one of Jessica Alba’s favorite recipes for a raw veggie pasta salad. It looked so good that I tried it immediately – and just like that, I fell instantly in love with it. It was SO good, and I’ve been known to eat it for lunch a few times a week. I never get tired of it. And that’s a rare thing for this giant bacon & chocolate addict connoisseur right here!

When I make that raw veggie pasta, I use cucumbers for it because I’m not such a big fan of raw zucchini noodles – but I’ve been wanting to try out cooking zucchini noodles for a while now. I’ve heard such great things about them so I was intrigued. Not only that, I’m always looking for new ways to trick my kids into eating more vegetables!

I wanted to be more creative with how I prepared them rather than turning them into spaghetti. We are all huge fans of Mexican food in my home, so I decided to do add a Mexican flair to them with a little cilantro garlic lime chicken. That was such a great decision too because the dish ended up being a huge success. Not only did my own kids love them, but my kids’ friends were visiting with us at the time – and they even loved it! Their mother came to pick them up that day, and her kids started telling her about how awesome the food was before she was barely in the door. That’s when you know you have a winning recipe! And I didn’t even have to bribe them with a promise of chocolate chip pancakes. 😉

Cilantro Garlic Lime Chicken with Zucchini Noodles – it’s one of our newest favorite recipes! I hope you try it too because I’m pretty confident in the fact that you’re gonna love it too!

Here’s what you need (with the exception of the garlic salt, which I totally forgot to add to the ingredient line-up… Oops)

First thing you need to do is dice up your chicken in about 1 inch pieces.

Spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray – my recommendation? Pompeian Avocado Oil Spray. It’s another one of my recent favorite things. It’s perfect for high-heat cooking, plus – it’s high in monounsaturated fats (aka, good fats!) & antioxidants. So, unlike other nonstick sprays, this one not only does it’s job perfectly – but it’s also good for you! That’s a huge plus in my book, especially when we’re making a healthy recipe in the first place. I’m going to use it again in a few minutes on the zucchini noodles too – it’s perfect on them!

Add the chicken & a couple diced deseeded jalepenos to the skillet. Season with a tablespoon of taco seasoning or 1/2 tablespoon of both cumin & chili powder – and 1.5 teaspoons of garlic salt. Cook on medium high heat until the chicken is lightly browned & cooked through.

Meanwhile, while the chicken is cooking, let’s turn the zucchini into noodles! You’ll need 4 large zucchini for this that have been peeled. You can do this a couple of ways. I use a Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Slicer because it’s really easy to use & I like for my zucchini noodles to actually look like noodles – it’s much easier to fool the kids this way! However, if you don’t want to purchase one & aren’t worried about making the noodles look like pasta noodles, you can use a regular potato peeler like I did in this recipe – it will make flatter noodles, but still works just the same!

Once the chicken is cooked through, transfer it to a separate dish and set aside. Wipe out the same skillet with paper towels & return it to the stovetop. Spray the skillet with the avocado oil spray again; heat to medium high heat. Add the zucchini noodles to the skillet & sauté for about a minute.

Now, add the chicken back to the pan. Sprinkle in about a cups worth of chopped cilantro. Squeeze in the juice from one & a half small limes.

Remove from the heat, & toss everything together well. Season with salt & pepper – or garlic salt & pepper if you want it more garlicy.

Directions:

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray (I recommend Pompeian Avocado Oil Spray, so good!). Head the skillet to medium-high heat; then add the diced chicken breast & chopped jalapeño. Season with taco seasoning (or mixture of cumin & chili powder) along with the garlic salt. Cook until the chicken is lightly browned & cooked through. Once cooked through, transfer the chicken to a separate dish; set aside.

Wipe the skillet out with a paper towel, & return the same skillet to the stovetop. Spray with the cooking spray; and turn the heat to medium high. Add the zucchini noodles & cook for 60 seconds – stirring often. Add the chicken back to the skillet. Sprinkle in the chopped cilantro & add in the lime juice. Remove from the heat & toss to combine thoroughly. Season with salt & pepper (or garlic salt & pepper if you prefer).

I tried this today for lunch. YUMMY! I would recommend to a friend. I didn’t have fresh jalapenos so I used jarred sliced jalapenos and it worked out fine. This was a relatively simple dish that doesn’t take too much to prepare. I didn’t end up needing any extra salt and pepper. My final result did have a little bit of a kick.